Edwin tatham



UNITED STATES PATENT .OFFICE.

EDWIN TATI-IAM, OF BALMAIN, NEAR SYDNEY, NEW SOIITH WALES.

METHOD oF MAKING GAS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 499,483, dated. June 13, 1893.

Application filed September 10, 1889- Serial No. 323,533. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWIN TATHAM, gasengineer, a subject of theQueen of Great Britain, residing at No. 76 Mullens Street,Balmain,near Sydney,in the Colony of New South YVales, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in an Improved Gas, usable as an explosive and in admixture with other gases as an illuminating and heating gas; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, which willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object of this inventionis the production of a gas the principal uses of which are as a motive power in gas and explosive engines, as a destructive force for blasting and like purposes, but which may also be used in admixture with other gases, for instance to intensify or bring out their. illuminating power. 7 This gas made accordingto my process is comparatively cheap in cost, is comparatively safe to handle, and yet when ignited has a highly explosive force.

My invention consists essentially in combining oxygen or commercially pure oxygen (such for instance as that madeby the socalled Brin process and which contains only about five per cent. of nitrogen) with hydrocarbon, so as to form an explosive compound. The oxygen is drawn or forced through or over liquid hydro-carbon, as for instance benzine, crude oil, gasoline, kerosene,naphtha, or such like in a mixing vessel in which the hydrocarbon and the oxygen commingle, the latter combining in its due or suitable propor-' tion with hydrocarbon so as to form a gaseous compound of a comparatively fixed or permanent character, because, as I have discovered, oxygen has a far greater carrying power for hydrocarbon vapors than other gases have. This gas, so made, can then be drawn off for use. If a hydrocarbon of great density is used I heat it before the oxygen is passed through it. When hydrocarbons such as spirits or light oils of a densityot' about 725 on Sykes hydrometer are used, I find the ordinary temperature of about 60 Fahrenheit to be suffi- 'cient,'but when hydrocarbons such as heavy oils of a density of aboutQOO by Sykes hydrometer are used I heat the same to about 212 Fahrenheit which may be done by providing the reservoir with a steam" jacket or vice versa, I heatithe oxygen to about 200 or 300 Fahrenheit before passing it into the res ervoir.

I would have it understood that Ido not confine myself to.any precise manner of or means for manufacturing my explosive gas, so long as the nature of my invention be retained. I must also be distinctly understood that in my explosive gas the percentage of hydrocarbon must never exceed forty by volume, and that usually and advantageously it would vary between four per cent. and twenty percent.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is I 1. The method of manufacturing explosive gaseous compounds, which consists in combining oxygen containing but asmall proportion (about five per cent.) of nitrogen, with a hydrocarbon gas in a proportion not exceeding forty per cent. of the oxygen per volume, as

set forth.

2. An explosive gaseous compound or mixture, consisting of hydrogen, carbon, and pure or substantially pure oxygen in about the proportions set'forth. 1

- Dated this 18th day of July, 1889.

EDWIN TATHAM.

Witnesses:

FRED WALSH,

F. M. Inst, P. A. THos. J. WARD. 

